MUSIC & VISION NEWSLETTER, JUNE 1999

JAN LADISLAV DUSSEK

'Admired for his tonal palette, "enchanted" touch, innovative
(shifting) legato fingerings prophetic of Chopin ("to hold the
vibration and to tie or bind one passage to another," he called it),
pedalling (in which area he was far in advance of Hummel), and emotionally
intense artistry, for his fanciful way with fioritura elaboration,
Dussek, le beau Dussek, was among the first of the great travelling
showman pianists, a generation or more in advance of Liszt.'

Also featured are details of the 1999 Van Cliburn International Piano
Competition for Outstanding Amateurs, the 1998 Royal Philharmonic Society
Awards, memories from Ivor Newton and of Smetana the pianist, and the regular
three-weekly round-up of piano concerts in the United Kingdom.

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REAL AUDIO CD REVIEWS

Continuing our series of CD reviews illustrated with streaming Real Audio
and numerous hyperlinks to other sites, John Hayward-Warburton explores
a new Naxos release of music by Hummel, and music for string quartet by
Nielsen, Puccini and Catalani.

'Despite his outliving Beethoven by ten years, Hummel's work does not
form any part of a bridge between Classicism (as it was already called in
his lifetime) and the Romantic Era. Perhaps it was the demands of a hungry
publisher, his employers at Eisenstadt (the Esterhazys) and Weimar, or his
business as one of Europe's finest pianists that kept the spark of great
compositional genius hidden? Perhaps it was an intermittent yet life-long
rivalry with Beethoven that caused his output to be silent in some aspects,
notably the symphony?'

Other CD reviews feature the music of Pizzetti, Bentzon and two new CDs
of American song (all reviewed by Peter Dale), CDs by contemporary composers
Lior Navok and Emilian B. Sichkin (reviewed by Patric Standford) and CDs
by two British Organists - Paul Ayres and Kevin Bowyer (reviewed by Basil
Ramsey).

BY THE WAY

Richard Graves continues his fascinating series of short articles about
music, 'By the way', with episodes entitled 'What's in a Name - or Neyme?',
'First Verse' and 'The Street Singer', and these articles will continue
each Thursday for the next few weeks.

'It can't have been much fun being poor old Charles Martin. He had spend
most of his life wandering round the streets of Victorian London singing
"Tom Bowling" and "The Death of Nelson" in the hope
that someone would toss him a coin or two. Perhaps it wasn't so bad in the
summer - but you had to eat during the winter as well.'

CONCERT AND OPERA REVIEWS

Mark Valencia compares productions of 'Candide' and 'Paul Bunyan' in
London, putting off painful comparisons until the end of his article.

'It all depends how you take your opera. Straight? A splash of operetta
fizz? Maybe you go for cocktails with snazzy names like "music theatre".
Of course, no self-respecting connoisseur would so much as sniff at a musical:
nasty, sickly things, strictly for the uneducated palate.'

Patric Standford visited York University's New Music Festival and makes
some cutting remarks about how music in Britain often goes unrecognised:

'... to the amazement of everyone attending the final concert last Saturday,
there was neither BBC Radio 3 presence nor even its apparent interest. Organiser
and Professor of Music at York, Nicola LeFanu, was at a loss to know what
more to do in trying to enthuse the BBC pundits who, having abandoned their
expertise in Manchester, seem to believe there is unlikely to be anything
new and worthwhile in the north unless they have a hand in making it.'